Novak Djokovic

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Novak Djokovic

Djokovic at the 2011 Hopman Cup
Country Serbia
Residence Monte Carlo, Monaco
Born 22 May 1987 (age 27)
Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
[1]

Turned pro 2003
Plays Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Coach(es) Marin Vajda & Boris Becker
Prize money $ 62,339,247
3rd all-time leader in earnings
Official website novakdjokovic.com
Singles
Career record 573136 (80.82%)
Career titles 44
Highest ranking No. 1 (4 July 2011)
Current ranking No. 2 (16 June 2014)
[2]

Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open W (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013)
French Open F (2012, 2014)
Wimbledon W (2011)
US Open W (2011)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals W (2008, 2012, 2013)
Olympic Games Bronze Medal (2008)
Doubles
Career record 3348 (41.77%)
Career titles 1
Highest ranking No. 114 (30 November 2009)
Current ranking No. 562 (18 November 2013)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open 1R (2006, 2007)
French Open 1R (2006)
Wimbledon 2R (2006)
US Open 1R (2006)
Team competitions
Davis Cup W (2010)
Hopman Cup F (2008, 2013)
Last updated on: 16 June 2014

Signature of Novak Djokovic.
Olympic medal record
Competitor for Serbia
Men's Tennis
Bronze 2008 Beijing Singles
Novak Djokovic (Serbian: Novak okovi, , pronounced nak d

koit

( listen); born 22
May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player and former world No. 1 who is currently ranked world No. 2
by theAssociation of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He is generally considered to be one of the greatest tennis
players of all time.
[a]

Djokovic has won six Grand Slam singles titles and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for a total of
101 weeks. By winning three Grand Slam titles in 2011, Djokovic became the sixth male player to win three
Grand Slams in a calendar year. By reaching the 2012 French Open final, he became the ninth player in the
Open Era to reach the final of all four Grand Slam singles tournaments and became only the fifth to do so
consecutively. Amongst other titles, he won the Tennis Masters Cup in 2008, 2012 and 2013 and was on the
Serbian team which won the 2010 Davis Cup. He also won the Bronze medal in men's singles at the 2008
Summer Olympics. He has won 19 Masters 1000 series titles, breaking a single-season record with five titles
in 2011. This places him third on the list of Masters 1000 winners since its inception in 1990.
He holds several men's world records of the Open Era: becoming the youngest player in the Open Era to have
reached the semifinals of all four Grand Slam events both separately and consecutively;
[14]
the first and only
man to win three consecutive Australian Open titles in the Open Era;
[15]
and playing the longest Grand Slam
men's singles final in history (5 hours 53 minutes).
[16]
Djokovic's ATP tournament records include winning 31
consecutive ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series matches, playing in the finals at all nine ATP Masters 1000
tournaments (a record shared by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal), and being the only player to win eight.
Djokovic is the first Serbian player to win multiple Grand Slams and the first Serbian player to rank No. 1 for
more than 100 weeks. He is the first male player representing Serbia to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Djokovic has won numerous awards, including the 2011 Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the
Year
[17]
and the 2012 Best Male Tennis Player ESPY Award. He has won the ATP World Tour Player of the
Year twice consecutively, in 2011 and 2012. He is a recipient of the Order of St. Sava
[18]
and the Order of the
Star of Karaore.
[19]

Contents
[hide]
1 Early and personal life
2 Tennis career
o 2.1 Start of career
o 2.2 2006: First ATP titles
o 2.3 2007: Becoming a top-10 player and first Grand slam final
o 2.4 2008: First Grand Slam title
o 2.5 2009: Ten finals, five titles, emergence of the Big Four
o 2.6 2010: Davis Cup title
o 2.7 2011: Ascent to No. 1
o 2.8 2012: Reclaiming the No. 1 spot
o 2.9 2013: Sixth Grand Slam title & 100 weeks at No.1
o 2.10 2014
3 Rivalries
o 3.1 Djokovic vs. Nadal
o 3.2 Djokovic vs. Federer
o 3.3 Djokovic vs. Murray
o 3.4 Djokovic vs. Tsonga
o 3.5 Djokovic vs. Wawrinka
4 Place among the all-time greats
5 Playing style and equipment
o 5.1 Coaching and personal team
6 Sponsorships and business ventures
o 6.1 Investments
7 In popular culture
8 Career statistics
o 8.1 Grand Slam tournament performance timeline
o 8.2 YearEnd Championships performance timeline
o 8.3 Records
9 Awards and honours
o 9.1 List of awards
o 9.2 Orders and special awards
10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
Early and personal life[edit]
Djokovic was born on 22 May 1987 in Belgrade, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to parents Sran
and Dijana (ne agar). His two younger brothers, Marko and ore, are also tennis players with professional
aspirations.
[20]
Residing in Monte Carlo, Djokovic has been coached by former Slovak tennis player Marin
Vajda since 2006.
[21]
Similar to Roger Federer, Djokovic is a self-described fan of languages, speaking Serbian,
English, German, Italian and French.
[22][23]
He has been dating Jelena Risti since 2005
[24]
and the two became
engaged in September 2013.
[25]
On 24 April 2014, he announced on his Twitter page that he and Jelena are
expecting their first child.
[26]

Djokovic's paternal-grandfather Vladimir okovi was originally from Jasenovo Polje, Niki in Montenegro.


Djokovic's parents, Sran and Dijana.
Djokovic began playing tennis at the age of four.
[27]
In the summer of 1993, the six-year-old was spotted by
Yugoslav tennis player Jelena Geni
[28]
at Mount Kopaonik where Djokovic's parents ran a fast-food
parlour.
[29]
Upon seeing Djokovic play tennis, she stated: "This is the greatest talent I have seen since Monika
Sele."
[20]
Geni worked with young Djokovic over the following six years before realizing that, due to his
rapid development, going abroad in search of increased level of competition was the best option for his future.
To that end, she contacted Nikola Pili and in September 1999 the 12-year-old moved to the Pili tennis
academy in Oberschleiheim, Germany, spending four years there.
[30]
At the age of 14, he began his
international career, winning European championships in singles, doubles, and team competition.
[20]

Djokovic is known for his often humorous off-court impersonations of his fellow players, many of whom are
his friends.
[31]
This became evident to the tennis world after his 2007 US Open quarterfinal win over Carlos
Moy, where he entertained the audience with impersonations of Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. His
impersonations have also become very popular on video sharing website YouTube.
[31]
Djokovic also did an
impression of John McEnroe after his fourth round match victory at the 2009 US Open, before playing a brief
game with McEnroe, much to the delight of the audience.
[32]
Novak Djokovic is a member of the "Champions
for Peace" club, a group of famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created
by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.
[33]

Djokovic is a Serbian Orthodox Christian. On 28 April 2011, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia awarded Djokovic
the Order of St. Sava I class, the highest decoration of the Serbian Orthodox Church, because he demonstrated
love for the church, and because he provided assistance to the Serbian people, churches and monasteries of the
Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo.
[34]
Djokovic is a keen fan of Serbian football club Red Star
Belgrade,
[35]
Italian Serie A side A.C. Milan
[36]
and Portuguese club S.L. Benfica.
[37]
He is good friends with
fellow Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic, whom he has known since the two were children growing up in
Serbia, through Djokovic's uncle and Ivanovic's father.
[38]

Tennis career[edit]
Start of career[edit]
As a member of the Yugoslav national team, Djokovic reached the final of the 2001 Junior Davis Cup for
players under 14, in which he lost his match in singles.
[39]
In juniors, Djokovic compiled a singles win/loss
record of 4011 (and 236 in doubles), reaching a combined junior world ranking of No. 24 in February
2004.
[40]

Tournament 2003 2004
Junior Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A SF

French Open 3R A

Wimbledon A A

US Open 1R A

Djokovic became a professional in 2003.
[41]
At the beginning of his professional career, he mainly played
in Futures and Challenger tournaments, winning three of each type from 2003 to 2005. His first tour-level
tournament was Umag in 2004, where he lost to Filippo Volandri in the round of 32.
[42]

Djokovic made his first Grand Slam appearance by qualifying for the 2005 Australian Open, where he was
defeated by eventual champion Marat Safin in the first round in straight sets, after defeating future
rival Stanislas Wawrinka in qualifying.
[43][44]
However, he went on to reach the third round of
both Wimbledon and the US Open, coming back from two sets down to defeat Guillermo Garca-Lpez in the
former, and beating Gal Monfils and Mario Ani in the latter. Djokovic participated in four Masters events
and qualified for two of them, his best performance coming in Paris, where he reached the third round and
defeated fourth seed Mariano Puerta along the way.
[45]

2006: First ATP titles[edit]


Djokovic at the 2006 U.S. Open
Djokovic became one of the 40 best players in the world singles rankings after making his first quarter-final
appearance at a Grand Slam, coming at the French Open, and also by reaching the fourth round
at Wimbledon that year.
[46]

Three weeks after Wimbledon, Djokovic won his first ATP title at the Dutch Open in Amersfoort without
losing a set, defeatingNicols Mass in the final. He won his second career title at the Moselle Open in Metz,
and moved into the top 20 for the first time in his career.
[47]
Djokovic also reached his first career Masters
quarterfinal at Madrid during the indoor hardcourt season.
[48]

On 9 April 2006, Djokovic clinched a decisive Davis Cup win against Great Britain by defeating Greg
Rusedski in four sets in the fourth match of the tie, giving Serbia and Montenegro an insurmountable 31 lead
in their best-of-five series, thus keeping the country in the Group One Euro/African Zone of Davis Cup.
Afterwards, Djokovic briefly considered moving from Serbia to play for Great Britain.
[49]
Following this
match-up, the British media spoke of Djokovic's camp negotiating with theLawn Tennis Association about
changing his international loyalty by joining British tennis ranks.
[49]
The nineteen-year-old Djokovic, who was
ranked sixty-third in the world at the time, mostly dismissed the story at first by saying that the talks were not
serious, describing them as "the British being very kind to us after the Davis Cup."
[50]
However, more than
three years later, in October 2009, Djokovic confirmed that the talks between his family and the LTA
throughout April and May 2006 were indeed serious:
Britain was offering me a lot of opportunities and they needed someone because Andy [Murray] was the only
one, and still is. That had to be a disappointment for all the money they invest. But I didn't need the money as
much as I had done. I had begun to make some for myself, enough to afford to travel with a coach, and I said,
'Why the heck?' I am Serbian, I am proud of being a Serbian, I didn't want to spoil that just because another
country had better conditions. If I had played for Great Britain, of course I would have played exactly as I do
for my country but deep inside, I would never have felt that I belonged. I was the one who took the decision.
[51]

2007: Becoming a top-10 player and first Grand slam final[edit]
Djokovic began 2007 by defeating Australian Chris Guccione in the final of the tournament in Adelaide,
before losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open to eventual champion Roger Federer
[52]
in straight
sets. His performances at the Masters Series events in Indian Wells, and Key Biscayne, where he was the
runner-up and champion respectively, pushed him into the world's top 10.
[47]
Djokovic lost the Indian Wells
final to Rafael Nadal, but defeated Nadal in Key Biscayne in the quarterfinals before defeating Guillermo
Caas for the title in the finals.
[53]

After winning his first Master Series title, Djokovic returned to Serbia to help his country enter the Davis Cup
World Group
[54]
in a match against Georgia. Djokovic won a point by defeating Georgia's George
Chanturia.
[55]
Later, he played in the Monte Carlo Masters, where he was defeated by David Ferrer in the third
round, and at the Estoril Open, where he defeated Richard Gasquet in the final.
[56]
Djokovic then reached the
quarterfinals of both the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome, where he lost to Nadal, and the Hamburg Masters,
where he was defeated by Carlos Moy. At the French Open, Djokovic reached his first Grand Slam semi-
final, losing to eventual champion Nadal.
[57]

At Wimbledon, Djokovic won a five-hour quarterfinal against Marcos Baghdatis. In his semi-final match
against Nadal, he was forced to retire with elbow problems in the third set, after winning the first and losing
the second set.
[58]



Djokovic playing against Robin Haase in the 1st round of the 2007 US Open
Djokovic's next tournament was the Rogers Cup in Montreal, and he defeated world No. 3 Andy Roddick in
the quarterfinals, world No. 2 Nadal in the semifinals, and world No. 1 Federer in the final. This was the first
time a player had defeated the top three ranked players in one tournament since Boris Becker in
1994.
[59]
Djokovic was also only the second player, afterTom Berdych, to have defeated both Federer and
Nadal since they became the top two players in the world. After this tournament, Bjrn Borg stated that
Djokovic "is definitely a contender to win a Grand Slam (tournament)."
[60]
The following week at
the Cincinnati Masters, Djokovic lost in the second round to Moy in straight sets. Nevertheless, he went on to
reach the final of the US Open, where he had five set points in the first set and two in the second set, but lost
them all before losing the match in straight sets to the top-seeded Federer.
[61]

Djokovic won his fifth title of the year at the BA-CA TennisTrophy in Vienna, defeating Stanislas
Wawrinka in the final. His next tournament was the Madrid Masters, where he lost to David Nalbandian in the
semi-finals. Djokovic, assured of finishing the year as world No. 3, qualified for the year-ending Tennis
Masters Cup, but did not advance beyond the round robin matches. He received the Golden Badge award for
the best athlete in Serbia, and the Olympic Committee of Serbia declared him the best athlete in the country.
[62]

Djokovic played a key role in the 2007 play-off win over Australia by winning all his matches and helping
promote the Serbia Davis Cup team to the 2008 World Group.
[63]
In Serbia's tie against Russia in Moscow in
early 2008, Djokovic was sidelined due to influenza and was forced to miss his first singles match. He returned
to win his doubles match, teaming with Nenad Zimonji, before being forced to retire during his singles match
with Nikolay Davydenko.
[64]

2008: First Grand Slam title[edit]
Djokovic started the year by playing the Hopman Cup with fellow Serbian world No. 3 Jelena Jankovi. While
he won all his round-robin matches, the team lost 12 in the final to the second-seeded American team
of Serena Williams and Mardy Fish. At the Australian Open, Djokovic reached his second consecutive Grand
Slam final without dropping a set, including a victory over three-time defending champion Federer in the semi-
finals.
[65]
By reaching the semi-finals, Djokovic became the youngest player to have reached the semifinals in
all four Grand Slams.
[66]
In the final, Djokovic defeated unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets
to earn his first Grand Slam singles title.
[67]
This marked the first time since the 2005 Australian Open that a
Grand Slam singles title was not won by Federer or Nadal.
[68]



Djokovic at the 2008 Pacific Life Open
Djokovic's next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships, where he lost in the semifinals to Roddick.
At the Pacific Life Masters in Indian Wells, Djokovic won his ninth career singles title, needing three sets to
defeat American Mardy Fish in the final.
[69]
Djokovic won his tenth career singles title and fourth Master
Series singles crown at the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome after defeating Wawrinka in the final.
[70]
The
following week at the Hamburg Masters, he lost to Nadal in the semi-finals. At the French Open, Djokovic
was the third-seeded player behind Federer and Nadal. He lost to Nadal in the semi-finals in straight sets.
[71]

On grass, Djokovic once again played Nadal, this time in the Artois Championships final in Queen's Club,
where he lost in two sets. Djokovic entered Wimbledon seeded third but lost in the second round to Safin,
ending a streak of five consecutive Grand Slams where he had reached at least the semi-finals.
[72]



Winning the Masters Cup
Djokovic then failed to defend his 2007 singles title at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. He was eliminated in the
quarter-finals by eighth-seeded Andy Murray. The following week at theCincinnati Masters, Djokovic
advanced to the final, beating Nadal. In the final, he again lost to Murray in straight sets. His next tournament
was the 2008 Summer Olympics, his first Olympics. He and Nenad Zimonji, seeded second in men's doubles,
were eliminated in the first round by the Czech pairing of Martin Damm and Pavel Vzner. Seeded third in
singles, Djokovic lost in the semifinals to Nadal. Djokovic then defeated James Blake, the loser of the other
semi-final, in the bronze medal match.
[73]

After the Olympics, Djokovic entered the US Open seeded third, where he defeated Roddick in the quarter-
finals. To a smattering of boos in a post-match interview, Djokovic criticized Roddick for accusing him of
making excessive use of the trainer during matches.
[74]
His run at the US Open ended in the semi-finals when
he lost to Federer in four sets, in a rematch of the previous year's final. Djokovic went on to play four
tournaments after the US Open. At the Thailand Open, he lost to Tsonga in straight sets. In November,
Djokovic was the second seed at the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. In his first round-robin
match, he defeated Argentine Juan Martn del Potro in straight sets. He then beat Nikolay Davydenko in three
sets, before losing his final round-robin match against Tsonga. Djokovic qualified for the semifinals, where he
defeated Gilles Simon. In the final, Djokovic defeated Davydenko to win his first Tennis Masters Cup title.
[75]